The complaint was formally delivered on August 27 at Windsor Castle, near London, in Andrew’s absence, according to local newspapers, at Balmoral Castle, Scotland.

However, the prince’s lawyers challenged the procedure, as well as New York’s jurisdiction, at a hearing on the case on Monday.

After the Supreme Court of Justice ruled in the prince’s favour, it finally validated the notification after “additional information” was provided by the defense of the alleged victim, Virginia Joffrey, who sued Andre on August 9 in federal court. Manhattan.

Virginia Joffrey publicly accused the Duke of York of sexual assault more than 20 years ago, when she was a minor, with the help of American businessman Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.

According to the complaint, Prince Andrei is “one of the strong men” to whom Virginia Joffrey was born for sexual purposes, as she was a victim between 2000 and 2002, when she was 16, of widespread sex trafficking Jeffrey Epstein was accused and arrested.

Andrei, 61, who is often seen as the favorite of Isabel II, and is forced to withdraw from public life, refutes the accusations.

The prince has questioned the authenticity of a photo showing him with Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell, a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein, who is still in detention and is due to stand trial on November 29 in New York.

Ghislaine Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to the sex trafficking charges in federal court in Manhattan, where she will be tried in November.

Jeffrey Epstein, 66, a hedge fund investor, was formally charged with child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking in July 2019. Less than a month later, on August 10, 2019, the millionaire was found dead in his cell, in New York. In prison, authorities concluded that it was a suicide. The death led to the lawsuit being dismissed, but civil cases remain open.

As part of Epstein’s investigation and encounters with the women and teens, Manhattan lawyers have formally requested to speak with Prince Andrew.

On June 8, 2020, Prince Andrew’s lawyers revealed that Queen Elizabeth II’s son has volunteered to assist the US Department of Justice (DOJ) three times as a witness in a lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein.